for physical health but mental and emotional health as well. >> sounds incredible. congratulations on the new show. "chasing life with dr. sanjay gupta" premieres this saturday at 9:00 p.m. on cnn. follow me on facebook and twitter. tweet the show @thelead. our coverage continues on cnn right now. thanks so much for watching. happening now, wikileaks founder julian assange is dragged out of the london embassy where he'd taken refuge for years. he faces extradition to the u.s. where he's charged with conspiring to hack military secrets. are more charges ahead? i know nothing. president trump praised wikileaks dozens of times when it was publishing stolen democratic emails during his campaign. now he says i know nothing about wikileaks. backing barr. the president says he's pleased with attorney general william barr for saying there was spying on the trump campaign. but democrats are furious and some key republicans take issue with barr's remarks.

and threatening retaliation. kim jong-un warns about dealing a serious blow to those who are imposing sanctions against north korea. but president trump has kind words for the dictator. could the two leaders meet again after their failed summit? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar. you're in "the situation room." tonight, the man who published democratic emails hacked by russians faces extradition to the united states where he's charged with a more serious offense, plotting to help a former intelligence analyst steal military and diplomatic secrets also published by wikileaks. after years of refugee in ecuad ecuador's embassy in lond orngs julian assange wore out his welcome with increasingly bizarre behavior and today was dragged out by british police. indications of more charges to come. president trump said today, i know nothing about wikileaks, but when wikileaks was publishing the democratic emails

during the 2016 campaign, president trump praised the group dozens and dozens of times saying he loved wikileaks. i'll be speaking with congressman eric swalwell. a member of the intelligence committee and our correspondents and analysts have full coverage of the day's top stories. we begin with cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. and when wikileaks was publishing these stolen democratic emailed, the president openly celebrated them. it's a very different response now. >> remember that day the "access hollywood" tape surfaced? that was the same day that wikileaks started publishing those damaging emails from hillary clinton's campaign manager john podesta. the president had no problem operation the organization ofusively in the days leading up to the election, but today here at he white house when asked about wikileaks, he was tight-lipped. >> i know nothing about wikileaks. it's not my thing. >> reporter: president trump distancing himself tonight. >> i've been seeing what's happened with assange.

>> reporter: offering no comment on the arrest of wikileaks founder julian assange. despite repeatedly praising the organization when it released damaging information on hillary clinton. today the president said he's leaving the matter in bill barr's hands. >> i don't really have any opinion. i know the attorney general will be involved in that and he'll make a decision. >> reporter: while top officials in his government have denounced wikileaks as a hostile intelligence service, trump didn't see it that way during his campaign. when wikileaks was publishing thousands of emails stolen from the democratic national committee. >> this just came out. wikileaks, i love wikileaks. another one came in today. this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. i love reading those wikileaks. >> reporter: trump quiet about assange today but plenty to say about the stunning assertion his attorney general made yesterday. >> hard to believe it could have happened. but it did. there was spying in my campaign. and his answer was a very

accurate one. >> reporter: bill barr is now facing backlash from democrats, including one of the three who voted to confirm him because they say he is feeding a conspiracy. >> i think that was a horrible choice of language, and it was a horrible statement to come from our attorney general. >> reporter: even some republicans are skeptical about his choice of words. >> if he had to do it over again, i imagine the word spying wouldn't be used but there was most certainly surveillance. >> reporter: at least one person was pleased with his performance. >> i think what he said was absolutely true. there was absolutely spying into my campaign. i'll go a step further, in my opinion it was illegal spying, unprecedented spying. >> reporter: former fbi director james comey said he had no idea what barr is talking about. and doesn't consider court-ordered surveillance spying. >> if the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying, wow. that's going to require a whole lot of conversations inside the department of justice.

>> reporter: jump in the oval office today with the president of south korea who is hoping to get stalled u.s. talks with north korea back on track. >> the big deal is we have to get rifd the nuclear weapons. >> reporter: one day after kim jong-un vowed north korea will withstand the pressure from sanctions and should deliver a telling blow to those who oppose them, trump said the tankses will remain in place but won't ramp them up for now. >> i had the option of significantly increasing them. i didn't want to do that because of my relationship with kim jong-un. >> reporter: now back to barr's assertion that the trump campaign was spied on. the president made clear today that he felt vindicated by those remarks from barr but also said he does want the doj looking into this. he said if they don't, he feels it would be a disservice to the country. >> kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you. we have more on the stunning public arrest of julian assange. after years of refuge inside

ecuador's embassy in london, he faces extradition to the u.s. let's turn to justice correspondent jessica schneider. take us through this. >> it was a stunning court appearance in the uk today with the judge calling out julian assange as a narcissist who can't get beyond his own selfish interest. the judge also found assange guilty for violating the terms of his bail and now julian assange is in custody while he awaits that extradition hearing on may 2nd when he'll find out if he'll be send here to the u.s. to face what could be the first of many charges. tonight, julian assange is detained after being dragged out of the ecuadorian embassy by british police. the now long-bearded wikileaks founder shouted before being stuffed into a police van. he's been holed up in the embassy for nearly seven years and now faces extradition to the u.s. on one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. the single charge has been sealed for more than a year but

resolves around wikileaks's publishing nearly a million documents in 2010, including classified material about america's wars in iraq and afghanistan and secret state department cables. assange's attorneys insist he's always acted as a journalist and is protected under the first amendment. >> this precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the united states for having published truthful information about the united states. >> reporter: but federal prosecutors say assange broke the law when he conspired with then-u.s. army intelligence analyst chelsea manning, who is now in jail, to crack a government password and steal the classified documents. u.s. officials have said the leaks created a serious national security risk. in part because the leaked documents exposed details about a 2007 u.s. air strike in iraq that killed journalists and civilians. >> julian assange has put american lives at risk. i hope he gets a fair legal process, but one that judges him

based upon the national security breaches that have happened in this country. >> reporter: so far assange is not charged for wikileaks' role in the hacked clinton emails posted on wikileaks during the 2016 campaign. >> we have more material related to the hillary clinton campaign. >> reporter: but a u.s. official tells cnn more charges against assange are expected. >> wikileaks, i love wikileaks. >> reporter: the president praised wikileaks as it dropped the stolen emails during the campaign. roger stone, a former adviser to trump, was indicted in january for lying about seeking out the stolen emails from wikileaks' founder julian assange. assange's arrest comes after his bizarre behavior prompted ecuador to end his asylum at the embassy. ecuador's interior minister said assange spread feces on the walls inside and believed his physical and mental health were deteriorating. >> and ecuador's foreign minister said assange's

well-being would only have further deteriorated had he stayed inside the embassy where his behavior had become aggressive and where he also tried to block security cameras, accusing the staff at the embassy of spying on him on behalf of the united states. as for yonow, assange will stay locked up until his next court appearance on may 2nd. i want to turn now to cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez. and so wikileaks has been implicated in russia's hack of the democratic emails during the 20 ca 2016 election. you're learning assange will face additional charges in the u.s. could these be related to that? >> they could be. we know this is just the beginning for assange. we expect justice department officials to say -- tell me they expect there will be additional charges. obviously, there's a lot of things that wikileaks was involved in. not only the chelsea manning issue but, you know, the 2016 election interference, as well as this 2017 leak of cia hacking

tools which i'm told was one of the things that really propelled this case. one of the interesting things that i think now that the ecuadorians apparently are cooperating with the united states, they are the ones who expelled him from the embassy. it's going to be interesting whether the u.s. can get their help in perhaps building some of these cases against julian assange. obviously, they had access to his communications. they would have been able to watch some of this. the u.s. was watching a lot of his communications, but if there's other ways he was communicating the u.s. did not know, it will be interesting whether they are able to help. it's clearly -- the ecuadorians have flipped from being supporters of his to essentially the ones who turned him in. >> cooperating. >> and the president after bill barr testified this week that he believed there was spying on the trump campaign, he didn't offer specific proof but he said that, and the president really grabbed on to that today in the oval office. and it's interesting to hear jim comey, the former fbi director

who is someone the president will consider in his box of people who have committed treason, right? he's throwing that word around a lot. he says he doesn't know what barr was talking about. >> look, i think a lot of people were puzzled by what exactly the attorney general was doing. and, look, i think some of this sometimes you can look at bill barr and his -- he believes that his job is to sort of lower the heat on the justice department from being a place where they are sort of being attacked by the president and sort of being essentially attacking the president himself, right? the president is attacking them, and back and forth. so i think one of the things he was trying to do at this hearing was to not have video of him essentially contradicting the president. i think he was happy to annoy some members of congress if that helped lower the temperature. i think perhaps it didn't work that well because i think he's caused a lot more questions about what exactly he means by the spying, despite his efforts

to clean it up. >> it's interesting if you go back and watch him because he pauses and he carefully considers what he's going to say and then he says -- he sort of goes all in and says, i believe there was spying. so you felt it was -- it seemed that it was an audience of one? >> i think you can consider it that way. one of the things the attorney general, i think, is trying to do also is, obviously, he was trying to make sure that he would clean up a little bit of some of the things he said the previous day. i don't think it went that well, but he considered himself to be media savvy in his own way, and i think perhaps he got a little ahead of himself there. >> evan, thank you so much. we appreciate your reporting. joining me now, congressman eric swalwell. he announced this week he's a democratic presidential candidate. he's also a member of the intelligence and judiciary committees. sir, thank you for being with us. and you -- >> thanks, brianna. >> congratulations on your next move here which is announcing that you are going to run for

president. i do want to ask you about that in just a moment. i want to begin with our top story. this indictment against julian assange. it has nothing to do with his alleged role in the russian election interference. i wonder, do you think he's still going to face legal jeopardy on that front? >> certainly possible. and everything that we know from the mueller team is they are still working. in fact, someone was indicted today related to the mueller investigation. so it is heartening to see that mr. assange will be brought to justice. and i also want to respect the role of journalist s and distinguish him from a journalist. he is someone who works with state actors to obtain our kunlt's and other countries intelligence information and interfere in elections. so i have no sympathy for mr. assange with respect to what he did. but what is really frustrating brianna is that the president of the united states, when approached about this arrest,

his reaction is what you would expect from my toddler when i find that he colored on the walls. he says, i don't know nothing about nothing are, essentially. he doesn't commend the department of justice for working so hard on this case. doesn't commend the british for working with us to extradite mr. assange. instead he says something completely unbelievable that he doesn't know anything about wikileaks when we know for a year and a half all he did was praise wikileaks. >> why do you think robert mueller didn't move to prosecute assange as part of a conspiracy with russia? >> well, i would like to answer that question by seeing the full report. i think if we see the full report we'd be able to answer that. and that's all the more reason that attorney general barr should give that to us now that mr. assange is in custody. it is an issue that's very ripe. >> assange now being out of the ecuadorian embassy is interesting in the ecuadorian government appears to be cooperating. so do you think they're going to

turn over evidence like visitor logs? they also would have access to surveillance footage. things that could be useful certainly to the investigation into russian election interference. >> we want to know what the russians did in 2016 and protect against what they could do in 2020. as long as this is always about the future, i think the american people are with us, and that would include understanding mr. whether assange did meet with paul manafort, the president's campaign chairman. whether he was communicating from that embassy with roger stone, a longtime adviser of donald trump. and so hopefully they do cooperate in that manner. but we still have an election coming up. and i don't think anyone can say that we are better protected in this election than we were in 2016. and so that's going to require getting all of the evidence to understand what the russians did, who they worked with and whether our government response at the time was adquiet. >> you mentioned the president and what he said today, that he knows nothing about wikileaks, that that's not his thing. we know that he enthusiastically

embraced wikileaks during the 2016 campaign. he talked about it dozens and dozens of times, especially in the last month before the election. does his history as a cheerlead are for wikileaks hurt the government's case against julian assange, even though their case doesn't have to do with the 2016 election? >> donald trump certainly is a fan, a cheerleader, an advocate for wikileaks. and they are a fan of his. he may say he knows nothing about wikileaks, but they know a lot about him. they sought to help him get elected. but i have faith in the american people, if this case is as solid as it has been presented so far, i have the confidence that the american people will give mr. assange a fair trial but hold him accountable if he did cross the line of journalism into actually taking direct steps to hack into u.s. national security secrets. >> do you have faith in the justice department that they

will prosecute him to their fullest ability considering the president has praised the person and entity that they are prosecuting? >> i expect the president will probably continue to meddle or attempt to, you know, indirectly tamper with the jurors as he did in the paul manafort trial. he was tweeting as those jurors were hearing the case. i don't have faith in the attorney general but in the men and women whoil to away on behalf of the cause of justice. and they are the ones who should be commended. the president won't commend them. i'll commend them. thank you plr bringing mr. assange to justice and working with our british allies, allies we need every day and let's hope justice is brought for someone who worked to disrupt a presidential election. >> you said you want the full mueller report. does the attorney general's testimony yesterday, does that weigh on you one way or the other raising concerns about the version of the report that you're expecting he's going to provide to congress? >> the attorney general should

recuse himself immediately. he has no business touching any part of this investigation. the letter he wrote to congress, the opinion letter about the mueller investigation was 15 pages shorter than the letter he sent to the department of justice asking essentially for the job. and stating he didn't think a president could be charged with obstruction of justice. he also is doing the exact opposite of what jeff sessions did. jeff sessions was recused. attorney general barr is completely embedded. he's putting forth the trump line here when it comes to -- >> jeff sessions recused himself in part because he had russian contacts he had not reported to congress which to the best of our knowledge we don't know that bill barr has had. why should he recuse himself? >> because he sent an unsolicited letter that detailed why the president of the united states could not be charged with obstruction of justice and then he was presented with a 400-page two-year investigation, 500 search warrants, 37 damtindictm

and he made a judgment. it was to take away a conflicted person, a presidential appointee from having to do that. i don't think we need him on the case a second further. >> to challenge you on that. it was robert mueller who decided not to make a decision on the issue of obstruction. it appears, based on the quote that is in the summary, he did make a call on collusion, not that was not established. but on the issue of obstruction, you're right. robert mueller didn't make the call, but robert mueller didn't make the call. is that something you hold bill barr responsible for? >> i hold bill barr responsible for not telling us what indeed happened with the special counsel with that call because brianna, i imagine part of the reason he may not have made that call was because it is department of justice policy to not indict a sitting president, which would essentially leave mr. mueller with two hands tied behind his back. and so -- but he also now is in a position where his analysis on obstruction of justice has been

shielded from the public. so the best thing we can do, the public paid for this investigation. released the results of this investigation, and the president of the united states who says he's 100% cleared should welcome 100% of the report being put out to the american people. >> we're awaiting that report, almost 400 pages and we've only seen 101 yards out of it. we're awaiting that hopefully soon. i want to talk about your campaign for presidency. you have -- >> i'm in iowa. >> there you are. i think that's an important state, right? you vowed to include republicans in your cabinet. as you know, president obama also named republicans to his cabinet. but it didn't really seem to do anything to promote bipartisanship during his eight years in office. why do you expect that that would be different, if you become president? >> well, it won't be easy. and i recognize that. having a team of rivals may pose some difficulties. but we're in such a deep, dark hole for our democracy, that the next from the have credibility to lead, i think is going to

have to demonstratively put in place republicans who can help him put the reforms that our democracy will need that have been exposed by this president through nepotism, through graft, through corruption. also the influx of outside money into our campaigns. so to pick ourselves up and move forward. i'm going to work with republicans. and it's something i've done my whole life. my parents are both republicans, before donald trump came to congress. i worked a lot of times to get bills passed. and it's something i want to do again and smig really believe the american people will welcome in the next president. >> you began your campaign with a town hall in florida near the site of the parkland shooting talking about ending gun violence. and given the hold that guns have on america and gun supporters have such an influence in america, do you -- how do you expect to get traction on this issue that has been very difficult for democrats to get traction on? >> it's not difficult for me

because i went to 26 states in the last 18 months to help us win the house. i was born in iowa. my wife is from indiana. i talk to republicans all the time. the overwhelming majority of nra supporters and members want background checks. but we're held back by the noise. the tweets, the shouting, the bullying by a vocal, vocal minority. i am not afraid of that minority. what i'm going to do is work with the moms and students and parents of the survivors and we're going to build a coalition of republicans and democrats to protect our kids in their schools, to protect people at their churches, protect shoppers at the mall. this issue just needs boldness, and i'm ready to lead on it. >> you are among 18 democrats running at this point. that's a huge -- >> water is warm. >> it sure is. and how do you stand out in such a crowded pool? >> i'm offering a vision of going big on the issues we take on. not just putting them aside. on health care, gun violence, education. being bold with the solutions.

coverage for all. bringing student loan interest rate down to zero. banning and buying back assault weapons. and doing good in the way we govern. having a collaborative process with republicans at the table. making sure we get the dirty money and dirty maps out of politics. but just as a person, i think i can add states in the general election. being born in iowa, educated in the south, elected in a diverse part of california, someone who brings generational optimism. i know who our enemies are from abroad. i've defended our country against them from the intelligence committee. but i also have stood up while the rule of law has been attacked here at home. so i'll be ready on day one. >> congressman eric swalwell, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, brianna. up next, wikileaks founder julian assange is charged by the u.s. with plotting to hack military secrets. are more charges on the way? amazon chief jeff bezos is to meet with prosecutors on his

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-when will it end? [ ding ] -not today, ron. to save 30% on all the medications we carry. so go directly to petmeds.com now. tonight after the arrest of julian assange in london, president trump says he doesn't know much about wikileaks despite all the videos from the 2016 campaign where he's telling crowds how much he loved wikileaks. assange is facing charges in the u.s. i want to talk to our political and legal experts about what is ahead here. okay. so how strong is the government's case, laura, against assange? >> very strong on a weak charge compared to all the things he's done. the united states has multiple areas to be concerned about with julian assange, including the 2016 election, including the issues involving ed snowden.

but the one they've chosen to connect to is chelsea manning. her displaying both classified and secret material which is a lorer classification. they've done the al capone moment. it's not that he has a against against him. on the relative scale of things they could have done wrong, they chose the one they probably have the most information. it's important to distinction. everyone saying it's a sad day for journalists. it is because people think that assange is a journalist. >> not everyone is saying that. not everyone is saying that. we just had a congressman on who is definitely not -- democratic congressman who is distinguishing. his lawyers are saying that it's a sad day for journalism. >> the reason they're saying that is because they want to hang their hat on a first amendment issue and say you don't want to hold accountable those who simply publish. in this case, assange is different. it wasn't just him saying there's private documents behind a closed door but i'm going to help you pick the lock to go behind that locked door. and that's near the -- the

hacking is a serious crime. >> it's not just -- it's the method which is illegal. >> he's complicit. >> the ecuadorians, phil mudd, are suddenly cooperating. he's spent almost seven years in this embassy. what all might they provide if they decide to provide it? >> the first is, what's with the cat? all these stories about the cat? once we get beyond the cat, that may be -- >> may not be incriminating, but -- first, who has visited? do you keep a visitor log? then you get into technical issues. what's in that room? does he have a laptop? do we have access to that laptop? where is his cell phone? also whether he used any technical facilities in the embassy. let me be specific. did he use your phone? can we get access to your phone logs from whatever service provider you have in the uk. i'm going to guess he's not going to talk too much, but there's a lot of technical stuff, including a visitor log i might get access to that give me

a picture of pattern of life for him. >> the president today was in the oval office with the leader of south korea. of course, he was going to be asked about this. and he was. and what was stunning was that he said, this is the quote, i know nothing about wikileaks. it's not my thing. okay. well, it was his thing. >> wikileaks, not my thing. >> it was very much his thing during the presidential election. let's listen. >> wikileaks. i love wikileaks. >> this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. it tells you the inner heart. you got to read it. it's been amazing what's coming out on wikileaks. this wikileaks is fascinating. this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. getting off the plane, they were just announcing new -- wikileaks. i wanted to stay there, but i didn't want to keep you waiting. i love reading those wikileaks. >> he loves reading those wikileaks but it's not his thing. why is he distancing himself? >> it was politically advantageous for him then because they were publishing things that cast his opponent in

a negative light. donald trump at the opening of the democratic convention in 2016 urged russia to try to find hillary clinton's deleted emails. he is -- he is 100% situational. if it is good for donald trump, he likes it. if it is bad for donald trump, he either hates it or doesn't know about it. >> bianna golodryga with us as well. when you're watching this, this is incredibly awkward for the president, but also this is the united states government that is prosecuting julian assange for helping to retrieve military and national security secrets. were you surprised by the president's kind of tepid response to that action? >> well, nothing surprises me these days. nothing surprised me in a couple of years now, but i'll say the president was likely focusing on what his attorney general had said earlier about the

government spying. intelligence agencies spying on his campaign rather than wikileaks. yes, it's awkward. we have the tape. we have him saying i love wikileaks. we have reports of don junior tweeting and dm'ing with wikileaks. but that having been said, talk about another awkward moment. his own justice department indicting 12 russians the day before he has a meeting with vladimir putin in helsinki. one would have thought that would have been awkward but we know the result and the president came out and said he believes vladimir putin. so i think whereas most people may find the situation awkward or go back on their previous words when they know they're on camera, this president has viewed things differently and has gotten away with it thus far. >> roger stone is still charged with not telling the truth to congress about the nature and breadth of his relationship with wikileaks. roger stone who was a foundational member of the trump campaign though dismissed early on.

the idea that donald trump has -- that it's a word he's never heard before, i mean, it is just patently and ridiculously false. >> on that point, too, i'd doubt they'll have this one count remaining. they'll have multiple -- given roger stone's testimony, michael cohen also present in the room the day roger stone told trump he had accessed the information. i suspect in this indictment, if it was sealed from a year ago, imagine all that's taken place under the mueller probe that may come out under this. i bet they've brought him in because he's a treasure trove of information. >> assange? >> assange. >> you think he's not going to talk? >> i don't think so. >> what would it take, do you think, to get julian assange to actually sit down and share information, have a discussion? >> first, how many years? i'm not a lawyer. i don't think this charge is going to be, unless we get additional indictments that are a lot more significant, a ton of years. so a lawyer is going to say, shut up. you'll not get a ton of time. you can't predict ego.

he goes into a courtroom based on a documentary case where you presume somebody would say, son, you need to talk. the jurors later said we saw the documents he lied. he decided not to talk. you have to figure out ego here. if you want ego, julian assange. >> i read one interesting analysis was this was actually relief for wikileaks in the sense that the organization can finally be separated from julian assange. obviously, that's the first thing you think of, the first name you think of with wikileaks. he's not the only one that works at the organization. one could wonder if the company itself could start releasing information, whether or not julian would comply on his own. >> what do you think wikileaks looks like without julian assange? >> i don't know. i mean, that's all that i've known of wikileaks, but, obviously, we know there's so much -- only so much that he can do carrying out the company and being sort of the name recognition and the head of the company. there are others that work there and it will be interesting if we start hearing from them at all if the brand, a company, the

brand itself seeing if it can survive with him now being in the predicament he finds himself in. >> bianna, thank you. phil, laura and chris. an important reminder. tonight at 10:00 eastern, don lemon will moderate a cnn presidential town hall with democratic candidate julian castro tonight at 10:00 eastern here on cnn. coming up -- breaking news. a former obama white house adviser facing charges connected to the mueller probe and his dealings with paul manafort. amazon founder jeff bezos is expected to talk to federal prosecutors soon. could that publisher, a trump ally, now lose immunity granted in the 2016 campaign hush money scheme? they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa"

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and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. breaking news now. the president has attacked the special counsel's russia investigation as a witch hunt of his administration, but today an official from the obama white house was indicted on charges that stem from mueller's probe. let's bring in cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez for the latest on this. >> yeah, this is actually a case that came out of the mueller investigation. and as you mentioned, the president has attacked the mueller investigation saying 13, now 18 angry democrats, he says, were going after him because he's a republican. turns out greg craig worked with paul manafort and that's the reason why he got in trouble because, according to this indictment today, greg craig

lied to the justice department unit, the foreign agent registration act unit, when he met with them back in 2012, 2013, about some work he was doing on behalf of ukraine. so this is everything that got him in trouble. he was in business with paul manafort at the time. and now he's been charged with making false statements to the justice department. so now he's going to be before a judge tomorrow. again, this is a democrat. worked for the obama administration as white house counsel. we got a statement from his lawyers that says in part this indictment accuses mr. craig of misleading the fara unit of the justice department in order to avoid registration. it is itself unfair n misleading. it ignores unkont tro verted evidence to the contrary. he had no interest in misleading the fara unit. that is what this trial will be all about. and i think you can bet that one of the things greg craig and his lawyers will point out is they believe he was being targeted

because he's a democrat. >> really? >> yes. >> interesting. evan perez. >> what a twist. >> we'll be looking for that. in another major legal story we're watching, amazon chief jeff bezos is expected to meet with federal prosecutors on his claim of extortion by a tabloid publisher. this meeting has big implications for that publisher, trump ally david pecker. i want to bring in cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz to talk about this. so could pecker lose that immunity deal that he had for cooperating with the government in the investigation of hush money payments to keep a former "playboy" model from going public about her affair with trump? >> he certainly can, and that's what the prosecutors here in new york at the southern district of new york, which has been investigating the hush money payments, and other trump issues, they could very much, if they decide that pecker and ami, national enquirer here, violated the nonprosecution agreement, that is, if they did engage in

activity that the prosecutors said they needed to stop, they could lose it. they could lose that and they could -- charges could be brought against them in the hush money payments. >> does that mean we might learn about the president's involvement in hush money payments. >> we can certainly learn more about it. we know a lot already when you think about what we've seen coming from prosecutors here in new york. we certainly could learn more. we can learn more about the president's perhaps communications with david pecker and national enquirer. perhaps other dealings they may have had. it could really open up a whole new window into what the national enquirer was doing here. what their role was. and other people certainly, even the president, what his role here was with the national enquirer and david pecker. so all that could very much happen. and the southern district of new york is very much still interested in this aspect of this investigation. it's one of the things they were going to ask bezos about, his claims that david pecker, ami, national enquirer were trying to

extort him essentially. >> what are the next steps? where does this case go from here? >> there's two things going on. you have the national enquirer issue and the ami stuff. and the other thing is the saudis. bezos has claimed he believes, based on information he has gathered, that the saudis hacked his devices and were able to get a hold of photos and text messages, and this was all part of this extortion scheme. now all of that is being investigated as we reported yesterday by southern -- by the southern district of new york. they want his devices. they want more information that they can, on their own, look through and try and corroborate some of what he says his investigators have found. and that's where things stand. bezos was expected to meet with prosecutors. they want his devices, the fbi wants to go through it. he's expected to negotiate that with them. we'll see where that goes. one thing this indicates is that the investigation perhaps is escalating here with the fact that bezos is meeting with prosecutors here in new york.

>> shim open prokupecz, thank you for that report. coming up, an ominous new tone from north korean dictator kim jong-un. so, we took all our engineering experience... a hundred years-worth of learning from impossible projects all over the planet... the heart and soul of a cat... and found a way to fit it all... ...right through that gate. this could be huge.

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six weeks after walking out of his summit with north korea's kim jong-un, president trump today had kind words for the dictator, despite a belligerent new tone from the north. brian todd is looking into that. >> well, the president's positive tone for kim jong-un came hours after the dictator

insulted donald trump's team. kim is frustrated with continuing sanctions on his country. observers are wondering if it will jeopardize his relationship with the president. >> after months of hand shakes, back slaps and talks with the u.s. and north korea, tonight analysts watch to see whether kim jong-un, north korea's 35-year-old ruthless dictator is shifting to a more hostile stance against the u.s. the sanctions have bloodshot eyes, should be retaliated against. >> we must deal a telling blow to hostile forces who are mays takenly determined to bring us down with sanctions. >> analysts don't believe it is going to lead to immediate strike, instead, they'll strike back building up self reliance.

the new warning as diplomatic outreach between kim and president trump if not dead in the water at least stalled. if that doesn't change, kim's statement could have more ominous meaning. >> up to and including north korea is not going to pay attention to sanctions and we will test these domestically developed missiles and weapons at a time and place of our choosing. >> 42 days after trump walked away from the hanoi summit with no deal on denuclearization, he met with the south korean president, moon jae-in. the president didn't address kim's new threat but said he was happy with the current level of sanctions. >> we want sanctions to remain in place. >> the president appeared to be open to incremental progress, but says the big deal is for kim to get rid of nuclear weapons. at another moment saying incremental progress would work. >> i enjoy the sum itmits, enjo being with the chairman, it has been productive, it is step by step.

not going to go fast. i have been telling you that a lng time. >> tonight with kim jong-un wrapping up rhetoric, key questions are looming with both sides feeling the sting from hanoi, and holding their ground, how does this relationship get back on track? can moon jae-in help kick start it or is the south korean president showing limited chops. >> the only two players that matter aside from china is trump. i don't think he has a great deal of influence. it still comes down to what can kim and trump agree to together. >> analysts have a warning tonight for the white house that if president trump can't sustain his personal relationship with kim, the dictator could have a menacing partner waiting in the wings. >> i think one of the things that hasn't been looked at enough is the possible relationship between kim jong-un and vladimir putin of russia. kim is expected to visit moscow,

to pay a visit to putin. the russians have also laid a fiberoptic line into north korea. this is really striking because of course north korea has very few computers and i doubt much people are gathering to watch the eighth season of "game of thrones" in pyongyang. >> and tonight, this is another indicator that may jeopardize the relationship. these are new satellite pictures of a key parade training ground in pyongyang. they show that hundreds of military vehicles are on the grounds. they say this could indicate there may be a big military parade in the works for this coming monday, april 15th, birthday of kim jong-un's grandfather. analysts say if they stage a big parade and show off new weapons, the dynamic between the u.s. and north korea is going to take a hit. brianna? >> brian todd, thank you so much. coming up, wikileaks founder julian assange is dragged out of

the london embassy where he had taken refuge several years. he faces extradition for hacking military secrets. are more charges ahead? lease the 2019 is 300 for $329 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. with retirement planning and advice for what you need today

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happening now. wikileaks founder julian assange arrested and dragged from the london embassy where he has been hold up seven years and facing

extradition to the u.s., accused of conspiring to steal military secrets. are more charges coming. it is not my thing. president trump denies knowing anything about wikileaks despite repeatedly praising it on the campaign trail where he called it fascinating, a treasure trove, and said, quote, i love wikileaks. show barr. the president is backing william barr, facing blistering backlash over the controversial claim the trump campaign was spied on, an unsubstantiated allegation that the president calls true. was it aimed at an audience of one. stormy lawyer charged. mike avenatti with dozens of charges including fraud, tax evasion, stealing millions from clients. tonight, the attorney rose to fame representing a porn star faces potential sentence of more than 300 years. welcome to our viewers around the united states and around the world.

wolf blitzer is off. i